the characters themes and literary components in

Pages: three or more

Fallen Angels

The heroes, themes and literary products used in Gone down Angels, a novel by simply Walter Dean Myers, make it the compelling, critically-acclaimed novel it is.

The three major characters in Gone down Angels, Richie Perry, Harold Peewee Entrance, and Lobel, all have got distinct people and experience. Perry, received from the streets of Harlem is a puzzled, innocent child when he first enters the Vietnamese Conflict. Perry features extreme potential, and even dreams of being a thinker. My plans, maybe simply my dreams really, have been to go to university, and to write…. All the other guys in the area thought I had been going to university. I wasnt, and the military services was the place I was gonna get away from the questions. Though he chooses to ignore it and join the conflict, as it is an easy escape via himself great nagging upcoming his deep-seated curiosity compels him to reply to more inquiries about himself and his honnête. Perry is a very interesting persona to portray in a warfare novel, when he offers instant insight regarding the war, where individuals physical, emotional, and mental capacities are examined. When he activities these troubling images, this individual tries to close them away, which demonstrates more and more ineffective the more he’s exposed to these people. Peewee and Perry reveal similar qualification. Perry originates from Harlem, and Peewee comes from Chicago. Peewee enters the war like a boy and matures and develops following testing himself and his probe. Peewee does not share the same ambition since Perry, professing he provides only 3 goals is obviously (drink wines from corked bottle, have sex to a foreign woman, and smoke a cigar). Even though Peewee deals with the warfare with his comedy and farce, he will from time to time show authentic emotion. This happens when this individual sees children explode in front of his eyes. The GIs arms and legs flung apart from the effects of the great time. The darn kid have been mined, together exploded in the arms. Nevertheless Peewee shows up light-hearted and easygoing, this individual reveals a caring, deeper side throughout the book. Because Lobel can be described as Jewish soldier and suspected homosexual that is in Perrys squad, he’s on the obtaining end of much of the abuse from the more anti-semitic and homophobic people of the squad, and even his disapproving daddy. He looks for solace from your abuse in developing friendships with Perry and Peewee, two of the kinder soldiers in the team. Lobel lives the war in his individual private, marvelous fantasy. Whilst Peewee comments about the war, he sincerely is convinced that he is acting a heroic role in a war movie. This is evident in this quote: You remember individuals cowboy films when the bad guys ride in town? You understand, the criminals? /`Yeah. /Thats us, Lobel said. Although some of the sophisticated characters in Fallen Angels share similar backgrounds, they all are distinctly several.

The major themes through this novel, all centered on conflict, include decrease of innocence, the portrayal of war vs its truth, and the values of war. Loss of chasteness is strongly developed from this novel, while the majority of the soldiers are still very young and maintain their purity, a youthful quality. This trait can be perfectly explained when, in chapter 5, Lieutenant Carroll calls them angel warriors. `My daddy used to phone all troops angel warriors, he said. `Because generally they receive boys to fight wars. Most of you arent old enough to vote yet. ‘ One other event that marks the losing of innocence, which occurs in chapter 17, is the explosion of a child mentioned previously. A child, emblematic often used in literature to represent innocence and naivety dead, and using its death, comes the fatality of what represents. The relentless loss of life and damage that is ever-present forces these to shed all their youthful pores and skin, and build a callus around whatever element of them seems sensitivity toward others. One other theme investigated in this publication is the distinction between the characterization of war and its truth. This motif is first demonstrated, though on a much smaller level, when the troops are forced to pay for their own meals at the air-port. Another case in point that reephasizes this theme is that just about every leader of Perrys team, with the exception of Lt. Carroll, acts out of own home interest, rather than for the reasons of which America entered the war. Highly troubled by the blurred range between misconception and reality, Perry tries to connect with and instruct the only constant he is aware, his family. He eventually ends up unable to do so. The last major theme explored in this book is the ethics of conflict. Myers genuinely illustrates the human tendency toward seeking black and white, correct and wrong, good and evil through Perry wonderful squad buddies emotional travels. Once Perry is swallowed up in the conflict, and eventually gets rid of a man, this individual questions whether he is inherently good (or whether anyone is good), because he is American. This is the reaction to the brainwashing done by the media and government. Following giving up upon trying to find the line between good and bad, Perry resolves that his goal in Vietnam is to get out alive. The styles that Myers explores with this novel are just possible to share as well as he did within a wartime setting.

Three major literary devices are used in Gone down Angels, together with a variety of symbols and motifs. Perrys letters home (which are almost metaphors), those that he often struggles on paper, reflect his ever-changing thoughts and opinions of the battle. In the beginning chapters, he writes to Kenny buoyantly, excited about returning home soon with all of his souvenirs and good tales. As Perry is confronted with the horrors of battle, he struggles more credit reporting the disbelief to Kenny and his mom. Another literary device may be the motif of race in war. During this time in America, the African-American detrimental rights movements was obtaining speed, and lots of soldiers taken their prejudices into the battle, where that were there no bearing. In the book, military lightly exchanged racial slurs, which often triggered physical violence. As the military bond jointly, their biases disappear. This is evident in Johnsons quote: I didnt say nothing at all, Johnson explained. I never talk that shit. A person in Nam fighting by my side is a man fighting simply by my side. I never care what he doing in bed. ‘ The last fictional device employed in Fallen Angels is plea. As the group runs into more and more great things, including the deaths of Jenkins and Lieutenant Carroll, they depend on prayer more and more. Perry typically wishes this individual knew the Lords Plea, and refers to religion in talking about Kenny and his mother. He seeks religious assistance from Produce, a very religious character who also acts as the priest from the crew, and requests him to borrow his Bible. Perrys letters, contest, and plea are all fictional devices used in this book to further develop the themes and critical tips.

Gone down Angels, by Walter Dean Myers, provides the substance in characters, designs, and literary devices for making it a really well-written, bestselling book.